Chef David Fisher of the Columbia Restaurant at The Pier recently prepared several traditional Peruvian dishes, including, in foreground, ceviche garnished with sweet potatoes and corn; lomo chorillado, steak served with lima beans and pepita nuts, top right; and a dessert, at left, called no es nada, an ancient Inca pudding.
[Times photo: Fred Victorin)

Downtown menus add Peruvian flair

The answer is the one food from Peru found on almost every menu in town. Still dont get it?

Papa in both the ancient Peruvian language and in Spanish; potato in English.

Thats right. The potato didnt start out Irish. It came to them, the Russians, the Indians and other potato-loving peoples from the Spanish, who found it in the Andes and took it to Europe more than 300 years ago.

That makes serving a little taste of Peru easier during the Empires of Mystery exhibit at Florida International Museum.

Peru has a wide and exotic spectrum of potatoes in all sizes, shapes and hues and a wealth of potato dishes.

Youll be able to sample some of them at several restaurants that are exploring Perus fusion of Spanish cooking with potatoes, beans, corn and other native American foods.

At the Columbia at The Pier, chef David Fisher has found exploring Peruvian food like a new toy box, different from the restaurants traditional Cuban and Spanish cuisines.

To research authentic flavors, he picked the brains of Peruvian colleagues, ate his way through the menu of a Peruvian restaurant in Miami, tracked down cookbooks and imported purple potatoes, yellow chilies, black mint and fiery panka powder. For lunch, the Columbia will serve arepas corn bread, potato soup, tacu tacu chicken and corn pudding. A special dinner for tour groups will show off Peruvian ceviche (marinated shrimp garnished with corn and sweet potatoes), the famous papas huancaina from the Andes, purple potatoes with goat cheese, and steak topped with lima beans and pepitas and a light pudding called no es nada.

The Renaissance Vinoy will have a different Peruvian entree on its dinner menu each month. Through November it will feature a version of anticuchos, the beef skewers that are a popular street food in Peru, with rice, black olives and raisins. That will be followed by escabeche, chicken criolla, tamal cuzqueno and other specialties of Peru. The Garden restaurant and others also plan to add Peruvian foods for museum visitors.

Visitors not interested in Peruvian foods may find that downtown St. Petersburg is no longer a lost city for dining. Downtown renewal has produced a dozen new restaurants, and a half-dozen others plan to open this fall and winter, from Mike Alstotts A-Train Pizza to Redwoods, a California-style grille.

Even more restaurants are expected downtown in the new parking garage, the revamped Ponce de Leon hotel and the vast BayWalk project. Heres whats on the menu downtown close to the museum and whats scheduled to open this fall and winter. All phone numbers in St. Petersburg are in area code 727: